Recent work in Indigenous geographies theorizes that Indigenous peoples are differently placed in relation to the state, neoliberal development, and to other Indigenous peoples, rather than a simplistic Indigenous/non-Indigenous people and custodial/exploitative frame. Indigenous people’s claims to land in Australia are overlain by a reductionist, settler legal topography that confers land rights to some Aboriginal people, native title to others, and nothing to those whose connections to land have been ‘washed away in the tide of history’. This paper presents findings from interviews and focus groups with Aboriginal Australians in settled Australia, following negotiations over resource development. We argue that in the often-distant periphery where land rights and native title are compelling, the notion of intercultural space is exotic, marketed and celebrated. In contrast, in the clearly demarcated settler zones, intercultural spaces with significant Aboriginal populations are steadfastly inscribed as dispossessed spaces, ripe for development. Because of neoliberal state–corporate alliances and interests and the ease with which the development agenda is progressed in settled Australia, we argue that realization of where, how and why these geographies have come about is needed to achieve national intercultural space. Without this understanding, only a limited intercultural space will be achieved.